The use of plastic containers for packaging a variety of materials is widely accepted in many commercial areas. These containers are typically filled in automatic filling machines. For optimum operation of the filling machine, the containers must be in a vertical attitude and aligned in substantially a straight line for receipt of material from the filling machines. When the containers are manufactured by a typical well known process, such as, blow molding, the containers are delivered in a random arrangement. Thus, it is necessary to align the containers and arrange them in a vertical attitude. An unscrambling machine which has received a high degree of acceptance to perform this function is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,650,368, entitled, "Article Orienting Apparatus", issued Mar. 21, 1972, and invented by the inventor of the instant improvement, John C. Nalbach.
The patented article orienting apparatus has a plurality of chutes which constitute a portion of a rotating drum. Articles fall into the chutes for vertical alignment. The chutes are designed to receive articles of a given size for alignment. In order for the apparatus to orient articles of another size, it is necessary to remove the chutes and replace those chutes with chutes designed to accept and orient articles of another size. It is desirable to provide a construction wherein the chutes may be readily and quickly exchanged to accomodate chutes of different sizes. It may be appreciated that when the article orienting apparatus is not operating, an entire filling line is shut down. Thus, it is desirable to be able to remove chutes and replace them with a minimum of down time.